Manuela Arbelaez Holds Title in Top Eight Gaffes

Manuela Arbelaez, a popular model, now holds another title in the top eight game show gaffes in history. While the Price Is Right model is moving on with her life after making a mistake that accidentally gave away a car, she can take comfort in the fact that she is not the first one to make a mistake on a major game show. There are at least seven others that most will remember.

Arbelaez removed the wrong tag at a contestant’s guess, revealing the real price on a $21,960 car, before the contestant could make another guess. The mistake ended with the contestant happily leaving with the car. Arbelaez apologized for the mistake, saying she was incredibly embarrassed. She explained the moment by stating her hand moved faster than her brain could stop it. After dealing with numerous media people on the subject, the Colombian-born model said she had an “Oprah moment” where she just wanted to give someone a car.

Other well-recognized mistakes shown on game shows includes a number of Family Feud mistakes. In one episode, a contestant using a slang term for a male’s anatomy in answer to a question about what an airplane pilot holds during a long flight. Another Family Feud moment came when a contestant gave several obviously wrong, and silly, answers to simple questions during a Fast Money round. In a separate episode, a contestant listed “gerbil” as her answer. The only problem was the question was to name an item doctors commonly removed from patients.

A contestant on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? Failed after the first round, which is typically an easy round. The question asked for the reason why people buy surge protectors. While the answer is electric current, the young man answered water flow.

Gaffes are not reserved for adults. A 12-year-old contestant during Kid Week on Jeopardy lost his chance to win because of a misspelling in 2013. The student had the correct answer of “Emancipation Proclamation,” but added an extra “t” in emancipation.

The Newlywed Game made history when a female contestant misinterpreted a question from host Bob Eubanks. Eubanks asked her to name the strangest place she ever “made whoopee,” but the contestant did not realize he was asking for a location and though he was asking for a body part. Her response brought Eubanks to tears and made the show forever a classic episode in television. Eubanks referred to the moment often in later interviews as one of his favorite episodes. A Wheel of Fortune contestant for a college week special had a difficult time pronouncing the Greek god Achilles, making for much laughter.

While these are memorable gaffes the public remembers fondly, none cost the show so much money as Arbelaez’ mistake of giving away a car. The show decided to let her remain as a model, even though her job security was up in the air for a brief period of time. Arbelaez said she will not make the same mistake again, but her goof will likely be remembers in the top eight game show gaffes of all time.